Ruptured breast implants focus of Hedgecock civil trial

Former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock and his wife are suing the city over a 2015 fall she took on damaged sidewalk that allegedly ruptured her silicone breast implants and eventually required replacement surgery.

Former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock and his wife are suing the city over a 2015 fall she took on damaged sidewalk that allegedly ruptured her silicone breast implants and eventually required replacement surgery.

Ruptured breast implants will be the focus of a trial that begins today to determine whether a damaged sidewalk is responsible for injuries to the wife of former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock.

Attorneys in the case are disputing whether one of Cynthia Hedgecock’s silicone implants ruptured when she allegedly tripped over damaged sidewalk in 2015 and fell forward onto the ground.

Hedgecock and her husband sued the city of San Diego last year over her injuries, claiming then that the fall in Pacific Beach caused the implants to leak beyond a normal enclosure of scar tissue and that the city owes the couple more than $25,000.

Since then, attorneys for the city of San Diego have discovered medical records showing both implants had already ruptured in 2012 and were due for replacement because they were more than 20 years old.

Attorneys for the Hedgecocks don’t dispute that the implants had ruptured beyond their original silicone sac. At issue is whether the fall caused a leak beyond scar tissue that normally forms around an implant, creating a second layer of enclosure.

Attorneys for the city say there is no evidence that the fall caused such a leak, that it could have begun before the incident.

In a trial brief submitted Nov. 22, attorneys for the city say one reason to doubt the fall caused the injuries is how Cynthia Hedgecock handled her medical care after the incident on July 31, 2015.

Hedgecock sought no medical attention directly after the incident and didn’t mention the fall during a doctor’s visit five days later or during a hospital visit for an unrelated abdominal blockage two days after that, officials contend.

It wasn’t until Aug. 17 that Hedgecock visited her doctor to address injuries from the fall, which she claims included persistent chest pain and rib damage.

Hedgecock and her doctor then decided the implants needed replacement and she had surgery in November 2015 to accomplish that.

In her lawsuit, she described it as a grueling procedure requiring pain medication, sleeping aides and her husband's constant assistance.

That is partly why the former mayor, 71, is a co-plaintiff in the case. The suit says he had to stay at home and help his wife every day with her recovery, prompting him to seek compensation for his “own loss of income and the loss of consortium with his wife.”

Court documents say Hedgecock and the city have discussed him dropping his claims against the city, but that he hadn’t yet done so.

Attorneys for the Hedgecocks say Cynthia Hedgecock, 70, didn’t seek medical attention for her chest injuries for more than two weeks because she hoped the pain would go away with time.

In a trial brief, they say the case will come down to her credibility.

“Either she has fooled her husband, her friends, her family, her general practitioner and her surgeon and made up a story about tripping and falling and hurting her breasts, or she was really hurt,” the brief says.

The lawsuit contends the city behaved with negligence and carelessness by not repairing a 2.5-inch concrete lip in a public sidewalk caused by a tree. The incident took place in Pacific Beach on Morrell Street near Grand Avenue.

The Hedgecocks’ case also criticizes the city’s sidewalk policy.

The Hedgecocks, of Mission Beach, argue it is irresponsible of the city not to have an inspection system and repair protocol for sidewalks.

City officials have considered changes to the sidewalk policy after some large settlements, including a nearly $5 million payout last spring to a bicyclist injured after being launched by damaged sidewalk in Del Cerro. No policy changes have been adopted.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel will preside over the trial, which is expected to last three to four days.

Roger Hedgecock was mayor of San Diego from 1983 to 1985, when he was forced to resign after pleading guilty to conspiracy in an illegal funding scandal involving his mayoral campaign.

An appellate judge later reduced the conspiracy charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.